I Will Ride, I Will Fly, I Am One With the Wind and Sky
by TsuTsuYandere
Summary: Elsa has never been to public school, due to an icy problem of hers. But when her parents says she needs to seriously start studying for law school, she is forced out to the ruthless world outside her house. Brimming with anxiety, she feels like all hope is lost. But a faithful encounter with a certain redheaded girl may or may not change her worldview. Elsida, ROTBTFD, Modern AU.
1. Chapter 1 - A Change For the Better

Elsa felt the air blow gently through her platinum blond hair as she took one step at a time down the sidewalk, a dreary feeling boiling deep in her stomach. Every other minute or so, she caught herself brushing imaginary dust of her newly ironed uniform, which consisted of a square pattered, dark blue skirt, a white shirt, a tie in matching color of the skirt and high, black stockings, or making sure her hair was has it was supposed to be; a simple braid, resting over her shoulder in an attempt to make herself look more relaxed. The truth, a truth maybe not so hard to see as she hoped, was that she was anything but relaxed.

Having been homeschooled for most of her life due to … ah, personal reasons, Elsa had never truly experienced being, well, in school, to put it simple. Sure, she joined her little sister Anna if her class set up a play or something like that, but through all those times she had only spoken to people when spoken to, and barely moved at all, silently waiting for time to pass, until she could go home and lock herself in her room again. Well, she had used to do that, but even that stopped after a while.

This was the first time she was going out, and _staying _out for a long time, with a high probability for her having to socialize with people other than her family. And this whole thing was _terribly frightening _all in all.

Of course, the now seventeen year old girl didn't stay locked up at home for so long without a reason, and that reason lay hidden beneath the silvery blue gloves that reached her up to her elbows.

Elsa shook her head. _Stop thinking about that, _she thought to herself. _It'll only make it worse._

Instead, she tipped her head upwards and let her blue eyes scan the cloudless skies. Swiftly, she looked around herself to see if there was anyone nearby, before looking up again and folding her hands over her heart. "Wherever you are now, whether you can hear me or not … winter is only a few months away so please … Please come back then, okay?" The blonde felt stupid for saying those words to thin air, but even if she was just talking to herself, it gave her a sense of comfort.

With that done, she let her arms fall to her sides, picking up her pace. One thing was showing up to school, another was showing up late. And anyway, who knew? Maybe this whole thing wouldn't be so bad if she just thought in a positive way? Elsa wouldn't know much of thinking positively, unfortunately, but she would try her best.

Elsa's parents had always been very strict. It might be important to mention that her father was mayor in their little town, Northlyn, which is why both her parents expected her to become something big. Her father wanted her to become a politician, but Elsa wasn't very good with people that way. Somehow, she had ended up studying to become a lawyer. That was, of course, because it was what Elsa wanted. Sure it was. Her childish dreams of becoming a fashion designer were long gone, due to her parents convincing. It was foolish of her to believe she would be able to reach that high in that branch for so long. She was glad her parents had made her realize that.

Still, she often found herself doodling dresses in the corners of her note books.

And in the end, the reason she was now walking to her first ever day at school, as a freshman, even though she should actually be in third grade, was because she just couldn't stay locked up anymore. It wasn't because she didn't want that, it was because she could never be a lawyer if she did. She _had _to become better with people and she _had _to get a proper education to get where she wanted … Even if it meant facing her worst fear.

The blonde tugged nervously at her glove, trying to pull it higher up even though she had already done so possibly fifty times. It would have been much easier if Anna was by her side right now, but her sister had left earlier than Elsa, because her classes started earlier that Elsa's today. Or, well, Elsa could come later since she was new, and of course, she took all the time she could get to prepare herself for … whatever was to come.

Sighing, she rounded a corner, only to abruptly stop in her tracks, having almost walked right into someone. That someone was a girl, probably at the age of her sister, with red, so incredibly red, _wild _hair that reached her to her waist. Elsa found herself staring for a few seconds, the other girl seeming just as surprised, like it was Elsa who looked like fire incarnated, before she blinked, and stumbled backwards. "I'm sorry," she apologized, and bowed her head. "I didn't see you."

"Ah- Uhm … It's fine, it wasn't your fault." the girl answered.

Elsa's eyes perked up again, now because of the girl's thick accent, which she recognized as Scottish.

The redhead looked back at her, her blue eyes wide with something that almost looked like, if Elsa could let herself be so selfish and think so, admiration.

Then, the moment was gone, and the girl cleared her throat awkwardly. "Um, yeah, have a nice day." she said, smiled brightly, before stepping around Elsa, and quickly walked away.

"You too." Elsa said quietly, even though she knew the stranger couldn't hear her. What character that girl had had. And that _hair _too.

The blonde shook her head, and started walking again, picking up her pace.

* * *

As she walked through the school hallway, her steps echoed soundly against the walls, giving her a sense of comfort. It made her feel alone, and that way, safe. Yet she didn't let herself enjoy it. Her task was to learn to be with other people, and socialize like any other normal person. She had to find new things that made her happy; things that didn't involve locking herself up and hiding from the world.

Fortunately, yet unfortunately, she stopped walking as she read the number of the door in front of her. 129. This was it.

With shaking hands, she lifted her arm to knock on the door. But right before her knuckles connected to the wood, she stopped.

"Breathe, Elsa," she whispered. Her heart was beating violently. "In and out, just relax. It will be fine." If someone had touched her hands now, she knew they would have been shocked by how cold they were. "Calm down." she muttered. She took a deep breath in through her mouth, before exhaling through her nose.

And she knocked.

"Come in." a feminine voice called.

The blonde took a shaky hold of the door handle, and slowly opened the door. She peaked inside before she opened it completely, revealing herself to the teacher and the class. She should have looked at the class curiously: That's what anyone would do. But she just couldn't. Instead, she stared at the teacher, hoping her face didn't look too nervous. Pressing her lips together, she forced a smile to her lips.

The teacher rose from her seat, smiling back at her. "Ah, you must be Elsa!" she beamed. "Come inside!"

Elsa had many wishes, but right now the greatest one was that she walked like a normal person would, because it certainly didn't feel like it. Her steps were stiff as she made her way over to the teacher.

_Ok, Elsa. This is it, _the voice in her head said. _The teacher will extend her hand to you, expecting you to shake it. Your hands are cold. You have to find an excuse not to take it, or else your cover is blown. You can't let that happen. _Especially_ not on the first day!_

"Class, this is Elsa." the teacher announced. "She is going to start in this class from now on, so I expect you to treat her nicely."

Elsa's eyes were glued to the floor. She should look up. She should act properly.

"You can get to know each other later. As for now, just continue with your tasks, and if you're acting nice, you can go earlier."

The class murmured an answer.

The teacher turned to Elsa, and, with a bit of force, Elsa looked back at her. "Hello, Elsa. My name is Robyn Scott, and I'll be your teacher for this class. History, that is."

Elsa waited for her to extend her hand. She never did.

A wave of relief spread through her, making the words easier to utter. "Nice to meet you." she replied softly, or well, as soft as she managed.

"If you want to, you can either sit her in front, or you can sit by the window, but let me warn you, it gets cold back there." Scott pointed as she spoke.

Elsa almost wanted to laugh. "Ah, well, the cold doesn't really bother me." she said, a more genuine smile spreading on her lips now.

"As you wish," the teacher smiled. "Now if you have your books, please take a seat, and then we can continue our lesson."

Elsa nodded, and started making her way through the classroom. She held her gaze low as she made it to her desk, and sat down. She reached down in her bag, and brought up the books needed, flipping them open at the correct page, which fortunately was written up on the black board, or else she would have to ask someone. And she really didn't want that right now.

She had just taken out the preferred pencil from her pen house, before she heard someone trying to get her attention.

"_Psst," _they whispered. "_Psssst,_"

Elsa turned around, even though she didn't really want to, but she didn't want to seem impolite either. "Yes?"

She met eyes with yet another girl. This girl had wide, green eyes, pink lips, and long, _very long _blond hair, tied in a braid. Elsa had thought her own braid was thick, but this girl's braid was so ridiculously thick, and _so _ridiculously long. She couldn't even see the end of it, because it disappeared behind the chair.

"I'm Rapunzel." She whispered. Elsa's breath stopped when she reached out for a handshake.

Her thoughts raced. "It's nice to meet you, R- Rapunzel?" She felt stupid for not being sure of the other's name, but she had been distracted, and to be quite honest, what sort of name was Rapunzel anyway.

"That's correct!" Rapunzel grinned.

Elsa smiled stiffly back at her. Maybe her hands weren't so cold anymore. Maybe they were. She could say she was afraid of germs … But that wouldn't make sense, she was already wearing cloves. Besides, if she said so, she would have to act like she was afraid of germs the rest of the school year, and that was not something she wanted to worry about.

She tried to stop her fingers from shaking as she lifted her arm and extended it towards Rapunzel. And then, their hands touched. Elsa held her breath.

The expected reaction never came. Rapunzel just smiled, shaking her hand, before retracting it. Elsa could feel her shoulders relaxing.

"So, where are you from?" Rapunzel asked.

"I'm from here." Elsa answered.

The other looked puzzled. "Are you sure?" she asked, before she blushed and shook her head, snickering at herself. "I'm sorry, I mean … I haven't seen you before anywhere, and you, well, you're quite noticeable, and this town isn't very big, so …"

"Ah, it's a long story." Elsa said dismissively.

"I see." The younger girl tilted her head. Surprisingly, she didn't ask any more about it. She just let the topic go. "But hey, Elsa, if you don't have any other plans, you can eat with us at lunch today."

Elsa blinked. An invitation … To eat lunch with Rapunzel and someone else, apparently. How many, she didn't know. If she ate lunch with them, she would have to socialize, which would be uncomfortable, but necessary. A part of her wanted to make up an excuse and say no, but she had to start somewhere, didn't she?

"Gladly," she said, with a smile she hoped weren't terribly fake.

Elsa could have sworn Rapunzel's eyes widened with surprise for just a moment, as if she had expected a no, before a grin made her eyes narrow again, yet not so much that she didn't seem just as, well, hyper.

A knocking on the door took Rapunzel attention away from Elsa, which gave Elsa a chance to turn back to her school work.

"Come in." the teacher said again.

"Sorry, I was … um. I was hungry."

Elsa's pencil abruptly stopped moving. _That voice …_

She perked up, and as she had thought, the same girl from earlier that day stood at the front of the class.

"It is lunch in half an hour, Merida, couldn't you wait?"

"I guess," The redhead, Merida, shrugged.

The teacher just sighed. "I am going to have to write this down. Go to your seat, please."

"Right …" Merida strolled over to her desk, which was just a couple of desk in front of Elsa, almost at the front of the classroom. Elsa got the impression that she was a troublemaker, since she sat that close to the teacher, as well as being late to class for "being hungry". Of course, that simply couldn't be the reason. There was a store right beside the school grounds, so if she were hungry, she could just go there, and there was also the school's cafeteria. But Elsa had run into Merida near her own house, which was pretty far away from campus. Maybe she just didn't feel like going to class, so she skipped. She was a troublemaker, alright. And probably, Elsa thought, not someone she should hang around. Maybe she would be affected by her behavior? What would her father say?

Either way, the sight of the redhead made it tingle weirdly in the bottom of Elsa's stomach, although her eyebrows knitted together in confusion at that. She was in a strange way happy to see her. Just in the few seconds they had shared together earlier, Elsa's had been intrigued by her broad accent and wild hair, and she had seemed like a nice person there and then. Even as her previous thoughts about the redhead's rebelliousness still rang through her head, she couldn't help but wonder … Maybe they could speak together? Maybe they could even, if Elsa dared to hope so, be friends?

* * *

After twenty minutes, Scott decided that they had been nice enough for them to leave ten minutes earlier. Elsa put her stuff back in her bag, slightly annoyed that she had just managed to start working before having to stop again, but proud that she had made it through her first ever class in public school. Or, well, at least a part of it.

Standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder, the platinum blonde turned awkwardly to Rapunzel, who was still putting away her books. "Right, so …" she said weakly, before clearing her throat. She would come nowhere if she kept sounding so anxious.

"Sorry, yeah!" Rapunzel said, as she stood up as well. "What is it?"

"Uh, who are these other people you eat lunch with? Since you said "we" when you talked about it." Elsa asked, unconsciously folding her hands nervously.

"Oh, that would be me, Hiccup, Astrid and-"

"Hey, Punz."

Elsa turned around, mildly startled by the sudden new voice behind her, looking at whoever it was who could be so rude interrupting someone while they were sp-

The infamous Scot stared back at her.

"… And Merida." Rapunzel finished.

"It's you!" mentioned ginger exclaimed.

Elsa blinked a couple of times before she managed to collect her voice. "Ah, yes, we are in the same class now." was the first reasonable thing to say that came to mind.

"You two know each other?" Rapunzel asked, tilting her head.

"Not exactly," Merida said. "We ran into each other earlier today, a little while before this class started. How weird it is to see you again."

Elsa smiled faintly, and nodded. "The same to you," she answered awkwardly, clenching her hands together.

"Anyway, I'm Merida!" Merida grinned, and reached out for her hand.

Elsa hesitated for a moment, before she quickly said: "Elsa here," and shook her hand as quickly as she managed without making it look unnatural, and retracted it.

Rapunzel just stood beside them, smiling brightly like always, before her eyes switched quickly between them and the clock. "We should get to the cafeteria." she said, before nodding, as if agreeing with herself, and marching between Elsa and Merida.

Elsa shot a glance at Merida, who was looking back at her, smiling apologetically, like Rapunzel's attitude had to be excused. Elsa chuckled faintly, hoping it didn't sound too strained, before they both followed Rapunzel out.

On their way through the hallway, which was slowly filling up with students (Elsa felt like there were way too many people there already, but she knew there would be many, many more and she was glad that the teacher had let them out early), the platinum blonde couldn't help but stare at Rapunzel's hair. It was _so long_. Her ridiculously thick braid reached her down to her _ankles. _Who knew how long it would be if she took it out. And how did it get so long anyway? That couldn't be normal. Maybe it was fake?

"A little tip…" Merida said quietly, and Elsa shifted her eyes to her. "Don't ask Punz about her hair. She will never answer, and if you push it, she will either get anxious or grumpy. Nobody knows what the fuck she did to it, but after a while you just kinda accept it. You'll get used to it." She smiled reassuringly.

"I see," Elsa said. "I won't ask about it, then."

"There's nothing wrong about wondering, of course," Merida laughed, and elbowed Elsa softly. "We've all been there."

Elsa gave her a surprised look at the contact, but the way the redhead smiled back at her made it impossible for her to not smile back.

The group of three came to the end of the hallway and entered the busy cafeteria. It was already swarming with students, even though the bell hadn't even rung. Again, Elsa felt a pang in her chest just thinking of how crowded it would in just ten minutes or so. If she just went through her breathing practices, or thought of her happy place, then she would be okay, but … If something happened she knew that the nearest exit wasn't that far away, but she'd still have to run through the crowd to get away. Maybe if she ran _around _the crowd, along the walls, it would take longer but at least she would be almost a hundred percent sure she wouldn't hurt anyone, as long as-

"Hey, Hic! Astrid!" Merida bellowed. Her voice was so sharp and sudden that it made Elsa jump slightly, but it went by unnoticed as their group proceeded to walk towards two people sitting at a table by the windows. A boy and a girl. The boy had brown hair and a slight stubble. His face looked kind. Elsa instantly got the impression he was a person it would be easy to talk to. The girl, however, was nothing like that. She was pretty, it wasn't that. Long, blond hair, not as long as Rapunzel, of course, braided in a strange, yet beautiful way, blue eyes, and a friendly smile on her lips, yet something about her seemed to ooze of … strength. Elsa wasn't too sure about her, but the others knew her, so she couldn't possibly be that bad?

"Good morning, Merida. You don't have to shout across the room to say "hey", you know?" said the boy. Merida had called him "Hic" but she wasn't sure if that was his real name or some kind of weird nickname.

"What, did I scare you again?" Merida asked, smirking.

The boy rolled his eyes. "_No._" he replied annoyed.

"He nearly jumped out of his seat." the girl said, laughing at the blush building up in the other's cheeks.

Merida laughed with her, and hit the boy's shoulder, in which he gave her yet another bothered glance.

"Um, guys," Rapunzel interrupted. Everyone turned to her. She smiled, and gestured to Elsa. "This is Elsa, she started in our class today."

Elsa caught herself folding her hands. A habit, she supposed, when she was under some kind of stress. She smiled as bright as she managed. "Hi," she tried, her voice coming out high and squeaky.

The boy stood up, and bent over the table. "Hey," he said, and extended his arm. "I'm Hiccup."

Elsa blinked a few times. "Hi- Hiccup?" she stuttered, not sure if she had heard correctly or not. Behind both her and this "Hiccup", the other girls stifled a laugh, except Merida, who had snorted loudly, not even bothering to try.

Hiccup chuckled as well. "Yeah, that's the usual reaction." he said, smiling sheepishly.

Elsa took his hand, and shook it lightly. "I'm sorry. I am Elsa." she said, her face flushing. How could she have been so rude?

"And I'm Astrid." the girl said, waving, but not getting up. "I think I saw you earlier today, while you were going to class."

"Oh, really?" Elsa said, trying to seem relaxed. "I didn't see you, though, sorry."

"Nah, it's fine," Astrid said, waving her hand absently. "Was going to the toilet, so I was gone pretty quick." He smiled kindly.

Elsa was right. Astrid wasn't that bad. Not bad at all.

"Ok then, so I'm gonna go and get some lunch. Anyone joining?" Merida asked.

"Yeah, me." Rapunzel said.

"Oh, I brought my own lunch," Elsa said.

"Alright." Merida replied, before heading away, with Rapunzel by her side.

"Hey, Elsa, sit down." Hiccup said. Elsa obeyed, sitting down quickly, as the boy sat down at the other side of the table again. "So, where are you from?"

Elsa smiled slightly. "Ah, that's the second time I've been asked that question." she said, and laughed halfheartedly. "I'm from here, I just … I'm not out much."

Both Hiccup and Astrid frowned. "So what have you been up to, then, if you haven't been out?" Astrid asked.

"Oh, you know …" Elsa said, her smile faltering. "Studying."

Astrid and Hiccup were quiet for a few seconds. "Seems awful," Hiccup commented, before Astrid elbowed him hard in the ribs. Hiccup gave a quiet yelp.

"Oh, no, it's fine!" Elsa quickly said. "I know it seems boring, but I … I prefer it, actually. I'm … I've never been so good with people, so I haven't had much to do outside anyway. So …" She shrugged.

"Well," Astrid said, smiling back at her. "You're more than welcome to hang out with us if you want that. We make quite a characteristic gang anyway, maybe you'll fit just right in."

At that Elsa felt something bubbling inside of her. Happiness, she thought. Gratefulness. Yet, she was afraid. Opening her mouth to, by pure habit, politely decline, she was suddenly interrupted by a voice much louder than hers.

"Elsa!"

If it had been anyone else, Elsa would have been startled, but she knew that voice. Turning around, she smiled as Anna walked up to her. "Hello, Anna." she said, already feeling safer. Her sister had always had that effect on her. They weren't as close as they had been before … before the accident, but they were still sisters, and they still loved each other. Elsa was grateful for what they had, yet she found herself wishing Anna knew about her little cold problem, just like it used to be.

"You … You know each other?" Hiccup asked. He seemed surprised.

"Yes," Elsa almost laughed. "Anna is my sister."

"Your _what_?" Astrid exclaimed, looking utterly astonished. "But that's mean you're the mayor's daughter!"

Elsa looked between Anna and Astrid. "Uh … Yes?" she said after a while, unsure of how she should answer to this.

"We're not that alike on first sight, we know." said Anna, grinning.

"I didn't even know the mayor had another daughter." said Hiccup.

Elsa blushed. "I tend to keep away from dad's work." she explained. "Do you know each other, though?" She gestured to Anna.

Her sister sat down beside her. "We've talked before, briefly."

Hiccup laughed nervously. "Yeah, sorry, but … I mean, you're the _mayor'_s daughter, and he's a little … well."

"Ugh, _dad._" Anna exclaimed, and rolled her eyes. Elsa didn't say anything, but Anna had echoed her thoughts. Her dad had a tendency to seem _purposely _threatening towards new friends and potential boyfriends. He had a … special way of dealing with things, a way Elsa and Anna didn't always agree with.

"Don't worry about him," Elsa said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as well. "He seems threatening, but that's just his way to scare of people. I don't even know why he does that. But he won't do anything, so don't worry."

"What's going on here?" Merida said, and Elsa turned to look at her. She and Merida were holding a bowl of some kind of soup each.

"Hey, guess what." Astrid said. "Elsa is Anna's _sister._"

Nobody said anything for a few seconds.

"What the _hell _are you talking about?" Merida exclaimed, looking from Astrid, to Anna and to Elsa. "The mayor only has one kid, right?"

Anna laughed, and Elsa felt a smile tug on her lips.

"No, there are actually two of us." Anna said, crossing her arms and smiling smugly, like she always did in situations like this.

"So that means you're the mayor's daughter!" Rapunzel whined.

"We literally just had that conversation." Hiccup commented.

Elsa scratched her cheek awkwardly. "W- Well, it's not something you need to think about, I mean …" She gave the group a short look before turning her gaze down. "It doesn't change anything about me. I am my own person." _At least I used to be._

Elsa wanted to shake her head to get that thought away. Of course she was her own person.

Again, silence settled between them. Then, once again, Merida broke the silence. "Of course you are!" she said loudly, waving absently with her hand, while holding the soup in the other. "Let me tell you, I have a thing or two to say about controlling parents, you know, my mother is such a b-"

"Merida!" Rapunzel scolded, slapping her on the shoulder. "Don't talk about your mother like that, she is only trying her best, and you know it!"

"She is n- ! Well, I guess if you see it that way, but she could at least _try _to hear me out once in a while! It's like …" She sat down at the nearest chair, beside Elsa, and Rapunzel sat down beside her again. "I say that I wanna do something, and she's like '_oh nuh uh, Merida, you're a _fucking lady' like that's some kind of an argument!"

"I'm sorry, Merida, but I doubt your mother would ever swear. She's too proper." Astrid commented, leaning her head in her hand.

"Yeah, she's proper! And that's the problem with her!" The Scot, at least Elsa thought she was a Scot, groaned. "She should just mind her own business, so that _I _can live _my _life the way _I _want it."

Rapunzel leaned her head on the redhead's shoulder. "We know, we know," she mumbled.

Merida sighed, before picking herself up. "Right, so that felt really good, to rant a little bit, I mean." She scratched her head. "Anyways, what's up with the rest of you?"

It was Hiccup's turn to groan. "My father." he said. Elsa thought he would continue, but it seemed the rest of the group understood just by that.

"Hey, Snow White?" Astrid suddenly said.

Elsa looked over at her, and realized she was the one she meant. "What?" she said, actually asking about what she meant with Snow White. Snow White had black hair after all, and Elsa's hair was blonde, bordering to white even.

"What's with the gloves?"

She felt her body tense up. Under the table, she folded her hands tightly. _Keep calm, Elsa, she doesn't suspect anything. Anyone would wonder about the gloves. _"It's, uh …" But what would she say? The germ thing was already of the list. She had literally told the teacher that the cold didn't bother her too much, so she couldn't blame that either. She definitely couldn't tell the truth. "I just … prefer it, I guess." she said, and tried to shrug. It was a lame excuse. She cursed inwardly.

"Oh, okay."

She really hoped her relief didn't show on the outside.

"Oh my god, guys, I just remembered!" Rapunzel suddenly shouted, slamming her palms on the table. "I've heard there's gonna be a prom this year!"

Anna perked up. "_What?_" she exclaimed, nearly standing up.

"I know, right!" the blonde replied, her voice rising in pitch. "I only heard it from a couple of upperclassmen who walked past me earlier today, but they seemed pretty serious about it!"

Elsa looked at Anna, who stared up at nothing in particular with a dreamy look on her face. "An actual prom … I haven't been to a prom since grade school, at that was of course for children, but now …"

"Music, pretty dresses … _romance._" Rapunzel mused.

Anna gasped. "Oh my god, maybe I'll meet someone!" And then she gasped again. "… Maybe I'll meet … _the One._"

Rapunzel giggled. Elsa wasn't surprised how well they were coming along. She was, however, surprised that they hadn't been friends before this. They were basically the same person, it seemed.

"Just imagine," Anna continued. "I would have a big, beautiful dress- like, a gown, you know? And- And I just be there like, all beautiful and mysterious and _graceful_!"

Elsa giggled softly, along with Rapunzel and the others.

"And then!" Anna said, flailing with her arms as she spoke. "And then I see him, catching my eye because he's much taller and beautiful and … oh, muscular, than anyone else in the room, before he sees me and-" Whining, she pressed her palms against her face.

"But, uh, girls?" Astrid said. "Remember that this might only be a rumor. Don't get your hopes too far up."

"Well, I can dream," Rapunzel replied, before putting a spoon of soup to her lips.

"A prom, huh," Hiccup mumbled. "Guess who will freak out over this,"

Astrid let out a loud snort. "Just dance with a girl and it will be alright, probably."

"Yeah, but then he'll expect me to actually keep contact," the boy groaned. "And really, I have you guys, why do I need to prove anything to him?"

"Well, you don't, not really," Astrid shrugged, before adding: "…have to prove anything to him, I mean."

"But if you think about it, Hic," Merida shot in. "It _is _kinda suspicious that you're friends with, well, now five girls and you've never got it on with any of us."

Hiccup blushed. "Shut up, Merida, it's not as if you have got it on with any guys either."

"But I have made it clear that I am not interested in a relationship with anyone right now," the redhead said lightly, before she got a dark look on her face. "I just wish my mother would grasp that concept."

"How about you two, then?" Rapunzel shot in, looking at Anna and Elsa.

Elsa blinked, as she was still a little distracted by what Merida had said. _You're friends with, well, now five girls_. They had barely even got to know Elsa, and they had barely even met Anna, and they still considered the sibling pair their friends already. Elsa couldn't help but notice the warmth that spread inside of her; a warmth which she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Compared to the constant swirling snow storm inside of her, it was like dipping into a sauna. It felt good.

"I'm sorry, what about us?" Elsa finally answered, earning an odd look from Rapunzel.

"Well, do you guys have anything going on in your love life?" She placed her head in her hands, looking at the sisters expectantly.

Elsa smiled, and chuckled, but it came out stiff and not particularly happy. She hoped no one noticed. "Ah, no, I haven't yet found anyone that … I click with." she explained, and shrugged. "But it's not something I'm rushing with. If Prince Charming comes into my life at one point, then that will be something I'll worry- I mean, well … deal with then. And if he doesn't, ever, then …"

She shrugged again, and tried her best to seem indifferent about this whole "love" concept. She already knew that she was too dangerous to be around someone for too long, much less a love interest. And by "dealing" with Prince Charming, she literally meant to get him out of the way, whether she liked it or not. She had told herself that many times before. She would never set anyone in danger because she felt a little lonely. She would never hurt anyone ever again.

The rest of the group stared at her, surprise clearly readable in each of their faces. Elsa blushed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound …" She struggled to find the right word. Depressing? Boring?

"N- No, no, don't worry." Rapunzel quickly said, shaking her head slightly. "It's fine to not thinking much about love. It comes when it comes, as you say."

"You just didn't seem the type." Merida commented, earning a look from Astrid. She shrugged. "What? Elsa is like … pretty and petite and clearly cares a lot for people, so I would think that she'd get into a relationship pretty quick"

Elsa blushed at the redhead's words. She couldn't take them as anything but a compliment, even though her interpretation was completely wrong when it came to her love life.

"Yeah, look who's talking, Merida," Astrid shot back. "I don't see you caring much about love either."

"Well, do I _look _like I care about that?" Merida argued, her accent growing thicker when she became slightly aggravated.

"Guys, calm down." Rapunzel interrupted.

"I swear to god, if you two start "play fighting", as you call it, again, it would still look like a real fight, and you would still get in trouble, just like last time." Hiccup scolded. "… and the time before there again, and the time before that …"

Elsa frowned. Rapunzel sighed.

"Alright, then. So I gathered you have quite a fantasy about love, Anna." she said, smiling brightly at Elsa's little sister.

"Ooh yes!" Anna replied, pressing her palms against her cheeks. "I haven't found like a boyfriend yet or anything, but that's just because my dad is a total freak sometimes when it comes to that stuff." She rolled her eyes. "But I would very much like a beautiful … tall and fair man, like out of a fairytale."

She earned a giggle from Merida and Astrid, while Hiccup smiled warmly at her childishness. Rapunzel, on the other hand, stared back at her with just as dreamy eyes.

"Come on, we gotta get to class." Hiccup interrupted, making Merida groan.

"There's like, five minutes left." she protested.

"And in those five minutes you should get your books." Hiccup retorted. "And I'm sure Elsa would like some guidance around here too."

Merida moved her head to look at Elsa, in which the platinum blonde felt blood rushing to her cheeks. "Th- That's not necessary, I will manage." she quickly said, waving her hands.

Merida let out a small laugh. "It's alright. I believe we are going to the same class anyway."

She smiled at her, and Elsa gave one in return. "Thank you, Merida." she said gratefully.

Not that she _wouldn't _have managed by herself, and honestly, walking by herself was something she normally would have preferred, yet she couldn't help but feel flattered that Merida wanted to take her time showing Elsa around. It was a nice feeling, this … It was something she could get used to.

But, alas, if it was something she would _let _herself get used to, was a whole other story.

* * *

"_Soo …_"

Elsa sighed. She knew what was coming.

"How was your day …?" Anna hummed, bumping into her sister slightly.

"It was fine." Elsa said. "A little unaccustomed, but aside from that it was fine."

"But you seemed to find your people very quickly." Anna commented. "I've never talked to them before, yet you managed to do so after just one day."

Elsa glanced at her. "I didn't really … It was Rapunzel who asked me if I wanted to have lunch with her." She smiled slightly. "I didn't expect it either. But it was nice either way."

"I'm sure it was." Anna beamed. "I told you school wasn't that horrible. The people are really nice! Right?"

The blonde pasted a smile to her lips as her eyes sunk to the ground. "Yeah … You were right about that." she said, acting as if that was the problem she had faced all these years: severe social anxiety. The truth was much grimmer. "Maybe it'll be alright, but Anna …" She hesitated and absently entwined her fingers.

"Yeah?" her sister replied, tilting her head curiously.

"If … If I lock myself in again, it means something happened, and I do not wish to speak of it. You know that." Elsa said, her voice growing stern. "It is a problem of mine and I have my own ways to deal with it."

Anna blinked at her. When she smiled, Elsa could see the sadness that hid behind it. She felt a lump of guilt form in her stomach. It wasn't like she _wanted _to lie to her sister … She just had to. She had to keep her safe.

"Of … Of course, Elsa." she said. "Just let me know if you would ever need help. I'll be there for you."

Elsa felt the lump grow larger, but she smiled warmly. "Thank you, Anna." she said quietly, touching her sister's arm slightly, before pulling it away again.

Such rare touches between the two of them were special, for both sides. But then again, Elsa wouldn't take any risks. Because the young girl had only one rule: Do not harm anyone. Especially not Anna. Not again.

* * *

**AN**

So this is just a fic that I am writing on because I need to practice my writing skills. Because I won't get any further if I don't do anything. This thing has no plot what so ever, yet (I am hoping that will sort itself out after a while). I wanted this chapter to be mostly introduction of the most important characters. I do not know when the next chapter will be published either, because I'm a lazy piece of shit.

Please leave a review, and if you feel like I need to do something better, then please tell me what you feel. This is very important.

This is also the first time I am writing a rotbtfd fic, so forgive me if any of the characters are ooc. I'm trying.

Also, since I don't really have a plan of what I'm gonna do with this fic, it would be hella if you guys were like "i want this and this to happen" or "can these characters do so and so". In other words, I am open for suggestions!

P.S. The other pairings that are not Merida/Elsa will be Hiccup/Jack, Rapunzel/Astrid and Anna/Kristoff (Briefly Anna/Hans but not really). Neither of these will be that important in the story, as the main pairing is Elsida.


	2. Chapter 2 - I'm Not the Villain

When Elsa woke up next morning, she had to take a few seconds before she remembered what she had done yesterday. Yawning, she went through the previous day in her mind. There was a girl with unbelievably long hair. Had it really been that long? No way … But it had, hadn't it? That was certainly the weirdest thing she had ever seen. Except for her own powers, of course. Rapunzel. That was her name. Quite a peculiar name, for quite a peculiar girl.

Then there was Merida. Rapunzel had the weirdest hair, no question there, but Merida certainly made the second place. Her hair was nothing less than _wild. _It was actually kind of adorable, that mane, if she might say so. And the girls was really nice as well, although she seemed a little … raw. If that made any sense.

In the end, there was Hiccup and Astrid. They had seemed like lovely people as well. As Elsa had understood it, Hiccup's father had a suspicion that he was gay, though Hiccup said he was not. Astrid seemed like a good friend of his, even if they seemed like complete different people. Hiccup was calm, while Astrid, judging by what Elsa had heard, had had multiple "play fights" that looked like real fights, with Merida.

They were a bunch of characteristic people, Elsa thought. A bit eccentric, too. But not so much that Elsa felt uncomfortable around them. At least not so that she couldn't get used to it, after a while.

And Anna had seemed to get along with them too.

A knock on the door brought the blonde out of her thoughts. She slid out of her bed and waggled over to the door to unlock it. When she opened up, her father was looking back at her.

"I wasn't able to talk to you yesterday," he said. "How did it go? Are you ready to go back?"

Elsa suppressed a sigh. She was happy that her father cared so much, but the fact that he put so little trust in her was more than a little annoying. Even if it was for her own good, and everyone else's.

"It went fine," Elsa said. "I even met some people."

Her father frowned. "People you can be friends with?" he asked.

She nodded. At least she hoped that they could be friends.

He smiled, and nodded back. "Alright," he said. "Just be careful."

"Of course." the blonde said. "I always am."

Downstairs at the breakfast table, Anna was sitting half asleep while eating her cereal. Their mother was standing by the kitchen counter brewing coffee. Their father had already gone, to an important meeting or something. Elsa hadn't really paid attention.

The blonde had never been a light sleeper, and since she had never gone to school, it wasn't often she got up this early, and she definitely couldn't remember last time she had participated in these lazy morning activities, if she had at all.

"Good morning, Elsa." their mother said. "I'm honestly surprised you got up this early."

"Yeah, me too." Elsa mumbled, as she sat down.

Anna looked up, and smiled lazily at her. "Good morning." she murmured.

She couldn't help but smile back. "Good morning, Anna."

Their mother put her coffee mug at the table as she too sat down. "Well, girls," she said, looking at them both expectantly. "How did it go yesterday?"

Both she and their father had been away due to something at work, and hadn't gotten home until really late, and Anna and Elsa had already gone to bed by that time.

Elsa shifted in her seat, and she started pouring herself some cereal. "I met some people." she said carefully, not looking up. She knew how surprised her mother would look.

"Really? Who?" she asked excitedly.

Elsa shrugged. "The first girl, Rapunzel, invited me to eat lunch with them. So I said yes."

Her mother was quiet for a few seconds. "Rapunzel?" she repeated, her voice thoughtful. Elsa glanced at her. Then suddenly she gasped. "_That _Rapunzel? The one with the ridiculously long hair?"

"Yeah!" Anna shot in. "That's her! What's _with _that hair?"

"I think she holds the world record for longest hair." their mother said. "But she isn't in any record books or anything. I don't think her guardians want her to have anything to do with the media. The rumors come and go, you know, about her. How funny that you met her."

"She's in my class." Elsa said, not particularly liking how their mother was speaking of her, like she was some entertaining freak. "And she's really nice."

"There's this other girl called Merida, too. She's from Scotland!" Anna said. "And there's Hiccup and Astrid. They're really cool too."

"Hiccup?" their mother asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, it's an unusual name." Anna giggled, before she got a thoughtful look in her face. "I don't really know, but … I think he plays for the other team."

Elsa gave her a look. Hiccup had clearly said he wasn't gay.

Their mother raised an eyebrow. "You mean … He's gay?" she asked slowly. Elsa didn't like the tone in the voice.

"No," the blonde said, a little sterner than she had planned. "He told us he wasn't."

Her mother looked mildly surprised. "Alright, but I mean … If he has to confirm it like that, don't you think there's a possibility-"

"Mom," Elsa felt a little bad for interrupting like that, but she continued anyway. "If he says he's not gay, he's not gay. You can't just presume someone's sexuality like that."

"Maybe he hasn't figured it out yet?" her mother suggested, shrugging.

The blonde shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she said. "If he finds someone one day of the same gender and he decides his sexuality is something else than what he says now, then that will be for that day. But now, he is hetero, and that's just the way it is."

Her mother smiled. "You certainly have a strong opinion about this, Elsa."

Elsa looked at her for a second, before adverting her gaze. "Well, I have to, don't I? About everything, I mean. If I'm going to be a lawyer."

Their mother laughed lightly. "You're right," she beamed. They sat for a little while in silence as they ate their breakfast, letting the guys on the radio do the talking. Then, their mother stood up. "Well, I think it's time for you two to get going."

Anna groaned loudly as she got up from her seat. She downed the rest of her juice, before she hobbled over to get her bag. Elsa got up as well, grabbing an apple from the kitchen counter, and stifled a laugh. Anna had always been slightly grumpy in the mornings. Not that Elsa was much different, but few people knew that.

"Have a good day at school!" their mother said. "And Elsa,"

Elsa turned to her, though she knew what was coming.

"Call me if anything happens, ok?"

"Of course, mom." she said. "But it's ok. It's going to be ok." She smiled and turned to Anna, who was looking confused, but Elsa ignored that.

* * *

"There she is!" Rapunzel whined as Elsa stepped into the classroom, making the latter look up in surprise. Merida and Rapunzel were sitting opposite of each other on a pair of tables, both grinning at her like they knew something she didn't.

"Good morning …" Elsa said cautiously. "What's going on?"

"_Weeeell,_" Rapunzel started melodiously. "We thought that maybe, since you and Anna doesn't have many … relations-" Merida scoffed, and sent her a look, in which Rapunzel shrugged. "… We thought that we could have a little gathering or something! With everyone!"

"We haven't asked yet, but we thought of asking Astrid if we could come to her." Merida added.

"It would be _so fun_! We could have like a picnic in the garden, and play card games, or video games, and watch _loads _of movies-"

"I don't think we will have time to do all of that, though."

"Oh, you're right …" Rapunzel suddenly gasped. "We could make it a _sleepover_!"

"Is that a little too soon? I mean, I don't have anything against it, but I don't want to scare them away either." Merida laughed.

"It'll be _fine_!" Rapunzel said and waved her hand. "That way we have time to do all the things! We can stay up all night and tell ghost stories or watch scary movies! Maybe Astrid has a scary game we can play! And we can bake brownies or something! What do you think, Elsa?" She beamed.

Elsa blinked once before she found her voice. "I…" she started, but trailed off. Folding her hands nervously, she looked down at the floor, desperately searching for a way to cancel those plans. Rapunzel seemed so excited … It was a shame that Elsa was the way she was, she just couldn't risk it. Maybe if she knew them better, much, much better, she might have come, but she had only known them a day after all. These guys really were outgoing, maybe a little too outgoing for Elsa. But on the other hand, that might be just what she needed.

The question was, would she risk it? What if she lost control? What if they asked her to take of her gloves? Or worse, what if they really weren't those nice people they seemed to be?

"Elsa."

She glanced up at Merida, who had said her name.

The redhead was looking back at her with clear concern in her blue eyes. Her head tilted slightly to the side, brows fused in both confusion and worry. "We understand if you don't wanna. It _is _kinda scary with new people, I agree." she said softly.

Elsa smiled warmly back at her, a little surprised that Merida was the one who said this. She guess she had misjudged her for being "raw" or wild or whatever. "Thank you, Merida." she said, averting her eyes. "I … I guess I could try."

Rapunzel gasped happily.

"But!" Elsa said sharply, before she sighed. "I don't think I can stay the night."

"Oh," Rapunzel said, and pouted. However, she was smiling again just half a second after. "Well! We'll just make the best of it!"

Elsa smiled back, though her insides were aching with anxiety already.

"So, a sleepover at my place?" Astrid said, sipping her juice. They were sitting at the lunch table again, in the same spots as yesterday. Elsa guessed they had subconsciously chosen their own respective seats at the lunch table. Anna had yet to join them.

"Yes." Rapunzel nodded, leaning across the table. She was looking at Astrid with what could be described as a puppy-dog stare, and it seemed to be working.

"I, ah…" Astrid scratched her cheek, and looked to the side. "I can ask, but I don't know anything yet. Don't get your hopes up."

Rapunzel shrugged. "Alright," she sing-songed, and sat down again. "It's always fun to be at your place, Astrid. There's more things to do."

"Well, it's more things to do at Hiccup's. It's just you who have a vivid imagination. Astrid countered. "Not saying it's a bad thing though. It's a part of your charm."

Rapunzel giggled, and waved her hand. "Oh, you flatter me." she joked, but Elsa swore she could see a slight dust of red on her cheeks.

Astrid smiled at the other girl, no, she smirked at the other girl, in which Rapunzel laughed and mumbled "don't look at me like that". Hiccup and Merida shared a deadpan look. Elsa didn't quite know what was going on, but she had already started to get used to that, being with this group.

"But, Elsa, you're not going to sleep over?" Hiccup asked, silencing the two blondes.

Elsa shook her head. "Rather not. I … prefer sleeping in my own bed, if you understand." she said quietly, not looking him directly in the eyes.

"Oh, I see." he simply said.

Seconds later, Anna appeared, smiling like always. "Hey, guys." she said, and her smile turned a little bit shy. Elsa smiled back at her, trying to look encouraging.

"Hello, Anna." she answered, followed by greetings from the others. "What took you so long?"

Anna blinked at her once, before she adverted her eyes. "Aah … I just got held up." she said, clearly lying. Elsa arched an eyebrow.

"By who?" she said. If it had been a teacher that had held her back after class, she wouldn't have reacted the way that she did.

"No one." she mumbled innocently, and sat down. Her cheeks were slightly red.

"A boy, then?" the older sister guessed. Her voice wasn't exactly happy.

Anna just giggled.

"You in love, Anna?" Merida said mockingly. Elsa had understood that Merida wasn't a big fan of love. Well, at least she seemed pretty tired of the topic.

"_Noo…_" Anna murmured, before she sighed. "I just ran into this guy, y'know? And I tripped and he caught me before I hit the ground, and well … He didn't get angry or anything. So we had a little chat, and …" She made a dramatic pause. "… He asked for my number."

Rapunzel gasped. Elsa did too, although a little quieter, and not in the manner of which Rapunzel did it. "Who is he?" they said in unison, Rapunzel excitedly, Elsa worriedly.

Call her overprotective, but no one was wearier of people than Elsa was.

Anna shrugged, completely missing Elsa's tone. "I don't know … yet." she said, dramatically pausing again. "All I know is that his name is Hans."

The whole table exploded. Rapunzel almost got up from her seat, Hiccup screeched "_what?_", Merida let out a surprised bark and Astrid seemed like she got juice up her nose. Both of the sisters looked at the group with the same surprised expression.

"_Hans? _That schmuck?" Merida yelled, before she laughed loudly. They got a few odd looks from the passing students.

"I would have been careful with him, if I were you…" Hiccup said uncertainly.

Astrid was getting tears in her eyes from the coughing.

Anna blinked. "Wh- What do you mean?" she stuttered.

The group got awfully quiet, until Rapunzel interrupted. "Hm… Anna, I haven't really spoken to that guy before, but you know how the rumors spread." she said carefully.

Anna looked kind of hurt, kind of offended. "You can't judge a person based on rumors!" she countered, crossing her arms. "He seemed like a very nice guy!"

"What does the rumors say?" Elsa asked.

"That he's a douche." Merida answered.

"And a player." Astrid added.

"And that he's gay." Hiccup said, before waving his hands slightly. "Not that it's a bad thing, just that if he really is gay, then he wouldn't want to be with a girl."

"I haven't heard that, but I guess you have this gaydar, eh, Hiccup?" Merida mocked, earning a slap from Rapunzel.

"Merida, haven't you heard that? I've heard that." Astrid said.

Merida snorted. "Well, you're kinda gay as well, aren't you?"

"Jesus, Merida, if we follow your logic, everyone in this group is a fucking homosexual." Astrid complained, rolling her eyes.

"Guys, can we, like, for once keep focused." Rapunzel said, and put a hand to her forehead.

"Right. Hans." Merida said, and looked at Anna. "I don't mean to be a partypooper, Anna, but be careful around that guy."

"Anna," Elsa said, and turned to her sister. "If anything happens, don't hesitate to contact me, ok?"

"Any of us, for that matter." Rapunzel added, and the others nodded approvingly,

Elsa turned to the others. She got more and more impressed with their friendliness for each day, it seemed. Anna, however, seemed conflicted. Should she be angry or should she be grateful? Either way, she didn't say anything.

Merida smiled at Elsa. "Don't worry," she said. "We got both of your backs."

* * *

The sisters were just about to leave the school grounds when Merida caught up with them.

"Merida?" Elsa asked, tilting her head slightly to the side. The redhead was out of breath when she walked up to them.

"Hey, guys." she breathed. "I don't really know where you live, but I did run into you yesterday so I guess we live in the same direction." She pointed in the general direction of Elsa's house.

"Oh, we live in Eastpond." Anna said and grinned. No hard feelings apparently. Anna wasn't the type to be angry for too long.

"Oh, I live a little further than that." Merida said, and grinned back. "On Rae Road. But it's still in the same direction."

"Do you want to walk home with us?" Anna asked excitedly. Elsa stifled a laugh. Her sister was like a puppy. A very stubborn, though excited, puppy. She had told her that once, that she reminded her of a dog, in which she said "Well, you're like a cat". Elsa had never gotten an explanation of why she thought that.

"Sure! I was going to ask anyway." Merida said.

The three of them started walking. Elsa glanced over at Merida. "Doesn't most people know where the mayor lives? At least when you live so close?" she asked curiously.

Merida gave a half-hearted laugh and pushed a red lock out of her face. "I'm not very orientated that way. I have gone to a lot of places, and I've probably passed your house loads of times, without knowing that the mayor lives there," she explained. "It's typical. I've been to many places, but I don't know the names of those places, or anything about them."

"Why, do you travel a lot?" Elsa asked. She noticed that Merida gestured a lot with her hands while she spoke, and that her curls bounced everywhere when she did that.

"Yeah! I ride Angus a lot, and I love to find new places with beautiful nature and stuff." Merida said. "And at the same time, places where I can practice archery."

"Archery?" Anna exclaimed, before Elsa got her chance. "You do archery? _And _you have a horse?"

"Yes!" Merida replied, sounding proud. "You should come to my house once and play with Angus!"

The girls kept on walking while Merida and Anna led most of the conversation. Elsa, naturally not being too familiar with socialization, only shot in a few questions here and there, but she enjoyed listening to them. It was nice to look at her sister warming up to both herself and Elsa's new friends, especially after so many years where she only had only seen her once or twice a week, much less spoken to her. Anna had kept many of the traits that she had before the accident, and before Elsa shut herself away, like the way she absolutely couldn't hide away any emotions, or the way she folded her arms when she got slightly nervous or uncomfortable (they had that in common). But she could now see the things she had missed before; the way she slid away her bangs even when they weren't in the way, the way it seemed like she was constantly skipping when she walked, and the way her head fell slightly backwards every time she laughed, no matter the intensity of it.

At the same time, she found herself watching, no actually, _ogling_, at Merida. Sure, Elsa hadn't met many people in her life, but she was sure that the Scot was one of a kind: First of all it was her hair. She had thought about this many, many times already, but her hair was really one of the most amazing things she had seen. Sure, Rapunzel's hair was a little bit more impressive, but Merida's was incredible as well. How could she even control all those curls? Did she even control them? And how could hair be that vibrant naturally? It was like fixed fire, and physical sunrays in the evening. Elsa couldn't help but wanting to _touch _it, though of course, that would have been really strange.

There was also her voice. Her accent was of course Scottish, and clearly so. It was very strong, and it grew even stronger when she got aggravated or excited. The way she talked, now overlooking that brilliant accent, made her sound strong and independent, even when she was just casually talking. She sounded secure. She was in almost every way the complete opposite of Elsa herself.

Merida finally glanced over at her, and the blonde adverted her eyes. It wasn't nice to stare. Though, it was hard not to, when it came to this girl.

"What is it?" she asked.

Elsa looked over at them again. "Nothing. I'm sorry," She smiled awkwardly at Merida. "I was just looking at your hair. It's very pretty."

Merida blinked once, clearly surprised. "Oh," She grinned, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "Thanks! You have really pretty hair as well, though."

"Really?" She looked at her braid. "It's … It's nearly white. I always think that it makes me look old, at least from behind." She laughed half-heartedly.

Both Merida and Anna gave her a weird look. "It really doesn't," Merida said.

"Nope!" Anna agreed.

"In fact, it looks sort of … I don't know, fairytale-like?" Merida suggested, and tilted her head to the side. "You know, like a snow queen or something."

Elsa raised her eyebrows in surprise. "A snow queen?" she repeated, and something between laughter and fright filled her voice. That was beyond appropriate.

"Yeah! Because it's so white, it almost looks like-"

Anna's phone started ringing.

"Oh! Sorry," Anna said, smiling apologetically to Merida. She picked up her phone. "Hello? Oh, hey mom!"

The younger sister slowed down her pace so that she walked behind the two other girls while she spoke on the phone. Elsa smiled slightly at Merida and shrugged.

"As I was saying," Merida continued. "It almost looks like snow, you know? It's really cool!"

"Well, thank you, Merida." Elsa said. "However, your hair is way more extraordinary."

"I think we are both beaten by Rapunzel, though." the Scot pointed out. They both laughed.

"About that …" Elsa started carefully, and adverted her eyes slightly.

"'Why is Punzes' hair so long'?" Merida finished.

The blonde chuckled quietly. "Yes," she said. "Is it okay to ask about that now?"

"Yeah, sure, but I don't really know any more than you do." Merida shrugged. "Just don't ask Punz about it. She hasn't talked about it before, and she probably never will, at least not in a while. If you ask her about it, she either gets kind of … passive aggressive, or she simply ignores it. I mean, if you ask about it, she'll probably just explain that she doesn't like to talk about it, but I think she assumes that one of us has already told you that. Which we have."

Elsa nodded. "I see," she muttered. "So she hasn't said anything at all?"

"Nope. Only that it's personal. It's quite mysterious, all in all."

Elsa looked up. Mysterious, eh? What if … What if Rapunzel had something special. Like Elsa, maybe she too had some kind of power? Elsa had many times wondered if there was someone else out in the world like her, and of course, she already knew a boy who was, but more like a next to normal person, and not practically the personification of winter. The chances that she would meet someone like her was slim, but… What if?

She mentally shook her head. She couldn't think like that. The chance _was _slim, and even if Rapunzel's hair was way too long to be normal, she couldn't let herself get her hopes up like that. And if Rapunzel was anything like Elsa, she could imagine that that secret was something she wanted to _keep _secret.

"It's okay to be curious about it." Merida said, and nudged Elsa a little bit. She must have been giving off a gloomy vibe. "We all have our secrets anyway, but it doesn't stop people from wondering."

"Yeah, I know." Elsa said, and smiled.

Merida smiled back.

"Elsa!" Anna suddenly exclaimed, making both the other girls jump. "Mom's out visiting some friends, so we're gonna be home alone for a while!"

Elsa looked at her. "Okay …?" she said slowly. It wasn't infrequent that the two of them were home alone.

"And ..." Anna looked from Elsa to Merida expectantly. "I was wondering if maybe Merida wanted to come visit, now that you're here already! If you want to, of course." She grinned at the other redhead.

Elsa felt like her head exploded.

"Sure, my mum probably won't mind." Merida answered, and grinned back.

No. No, no, no, no, no!

What if Merida wanted to see her room? What if there were ice stains on the window or something? What if she found her diary? Elsa didn't take Merida as the type to read other people diaries without permission, but she would never know. She barely knew the girl!

"Amazing!" Anna said, and clapped her hands together. "I think we have hot chocolate, if you like that."

"I love hot chocolate!" Merida cheered.

Elsa's heart pounded. She didn't really have anything to be afraid of, did she? But she was. She was very afraid. She was, annoyingly enough, always afraid of the smallest things. And even if she knew that her fear was irrational, it didn't go away!

Merida interrupted her thoughts. "Elsa? Are you alright?"

She glanced carefully at the Scot, before adverting her eyes again. "I …" she started, but didn't know how to continue. Her lips quivered. "I … I'm sorry, I just haven't really had anyone visiting before …" she finished lamely.

A silence settled between them. Then, Merida actually _giggled._

"It's okay." she said. "I won't go anywhere I'm not supposed to go, and I _promise _I won't break anything."

"Besides, Merida seems like the most harmless person ever, so she can be a good start, you know!" Anna added cheerfully.

"_Harmless?" _Merida exclaimed. "I take offense! You should see me with my bow!" She laughed merrily. Then, she looked softly at Elsa. "But, sure. I'm not the villain of this fairytale."

Elsa blinked at her. Had she just referenced to their earlier conversation?

"It'll be _fiiiiiiine_!" Anna sing-songed. "It'll be fun!"

Elsa hesitated a few seconds, before she sighed. A small smile tugged at her lips. "I guess you're right," she said, willing her fear away the best she could.

"Awesome." Merida said. "Let's go, then."

* * *

When the three made it to their house, Merida's first comment was an astonished gasp. "This house is _huge_!" she exclaimed just as they made it inside the gate. "I mean, I expected it to, being the mayor's home and all, but still!"

"It's not _that _big, is it?" Elsa asked quietly, and gave Anna a glance. There were many big houses around this neighborhood, and since Elsa wasn't so familiar with other places than this, she thought her house was quite the average size.

"Well, my house is kind of big as well, but that's because it's surrounded by fields it might seem a little smaller than it actually is." Merida rambled. "But this house is still definitely bigger."

Anna walked them through the front door, which led them to the kitchen. Down a small staircase, you could see part of the living room, and over the living room was a small loft for watching television, linked to the living room with a slim staircase leading up to it.

"There's a second and third floor as well, though the third floor is more like an attic," Anna explained. "That's where Elsa's room is. My room is on the second floor. There's a basement too, but that's more like our parents' territory, kind of."

"So you two kind of have the top two floors for yourselves?" Merida asked.

"Well, more like the second floor for me and third floor for Elsa." Anna tried to shrug nonchalantly, but Elsa could clearly see that there was some kind of awkwardness, or hurt, hidden in that sentence. She felt a knot of guilt form in her gut.

Apparently, Merida could not see this.

"Huh, why is that? Are you guys just sitting by yourself at home or something?" she said, and smiled jokingly.

The two sisters became awfully quiet. Elsa could practically feel an invisible wall appear between them, and the air in the room suddenly became much heavier. For once, it was she who broke the silence, though she didn't really know what to say. "It's … uh, it's because I am studying a lot, while Anna is out more or doing her own thing." she explained, but even as the spoke those words, the lump in her gut became bigger. She knew that she had shut Anna out, and Anna knew it just as well, and to hide that with such a simple reason like that felt like pouring salt into the wound that she had surely put on her sister.

"Oh, I see. That makes sense." Merida said.

"_Okaaay_, so you want hot chocolate?" Anna said, and bounced away. Elsa wasn't sure if Merida had noticed the little pause in the conversation at all, but the way her little sister had jumped from one topic to the other, it was pretty obvious that she was avoiding something. Elsa gave Merida a small smile, trying, but failing, to make the situation a little less awkward.

"We also have tea and coffee, and if you're hungry we can …" Anna stopped to open the fridge. "… Uh, well, I'm sure we figure something out. I'm not very good at making food." She grinned sheepishly.

Merida made a pained expression. "We also have homework we need to do." she said flatly.

Anna groaned. "Me too," she murmured.

"We can eat first," Elsa said, and smiled a little bit. "Then we'll do it. There isn't that much to do today anyway. We can manage."

"Yes, good idea." Anna said while nodding. She started rummaging around in the cabinet. "Well, we can make waffles."

Merida's face lit up. "Yes!" she said loudly, before laughing awkwardly. "Sorry. I love waffles!"

"Then we'll make that, and hope we don't screw up!" Anna said, and snorted. "Hopefully we won't screw up … that would be kind of embarrassing. This should be easy."

"Are you good at making food, Merida?" Elsa asked, shooting her a worried look. She didn't have any idea herself.

"Not really …" Merida answered. "But it'll be cool! You know Hiccup should've been here, he's great at making food."

The two of them joined Anna in the kitchen.

"Really?" Anna asked, as she opened the package. "Are you sure he's not queer in any way?"

"Anna!" Elsa scolded. Merida just laughed.

"I don't really know, but we all like to tease him about it," she said. "Wouldn't say anything for sure, though. He and Astrid seems to have some chemistry, but they've been friends for so long without anything changing. So either they've been secretly dating without anyone knowing, or they're too afraid of ruining their friendship by being more than friends, or they're not interested. We just don't know."

Anna nodded. "What about Rapunzel?"

"Rapunzel?" Merida asked confusedly. "She doesn't seem very gay to me."

Anna laughed, and shook her head. "No, I mean, does she have any, y'know, love interests?"

Merida frowned. "… I don't think so." she said slowly. "Maybe. She's a romantic, but surprisingly she hasn't had any boyfriends before. People find her a little bit unreachable, I think. Our clique as a whole are sort of known as "those weirdoes", so … Sorry to drag you two into that." She smiled smugly, not sorry at all.

"Why is that?" Elsa asked carefully.

"Why we're weird?" the redhead arched an eyebrow. "Well, you have Punz, with her crazy long hair. Seriously, her hair sometimes keeps me up at night. Even after all these years, I'm still like 'what the hell' sometimes. But you somehow get used to it. Then you have Astrid and Hiccup, who are actually the most normal of us, yet they are still seen as weird by the rest of their class. Hiccup is by the way known for his ultimate puberty transformation. You should have seen him like two years ago." She stopped to laugh a little bit. "He was this weak little boy whose voice kept cracking. It was hilarious. And then there's Astrid, who just gives of this intimidating aura, as you probably have already noticed." She looked at Anna and Elsa questioningly.

"I don't … think she's intimidating." Elsa tried timidly, but it only gave Merida another reason to laugh.

"Yeah, Elsa, you're … not very good at lying." she said, and smiled apologetically. "Well, I thought she was going to be this huge asshole when I first met her, but she turned out to be really great. She is also so amazingly strong, both physically and mentally. In other words, a great friend, _and _a great ally. You wouldn't want to be her enemy, to put it simple."

Elsa gave her a disbelieving stare. Merida ignored that.

"So people just kind of avoids her. And then you have me. The crazy Scot who has no style whatsoever." She pointed at her hair. "They might have a point there; I am not very picky with my appearance. But at _least _I am myself, you know?" She grinned stupidly, and Elsa couldn't help but smile warmly at her.

"Plus, I am also known as a prude, since I haven't dated any guys, because believe it or not, guys have asked me out before." She made a mock shocked expression. "Other people just think I'm a closeted lesbian."

Elsa looked questioningly at her. "Well …" She frowned nervously. "What are you, then?"

The Scot turned to look at Elsa. Her gaze was thoughtful, yet it still managed to look somewhat mischievous. Elsa couldn't help but to be reminded of her icy friend. "I, ah …" Merida started. "I haven't thought much about it, actually. But I do like to keep all my doors open, so I'm up for whatever."

Elsa returned the stare, though she weren't completely sure what she should say to this.

"That's a nice way to look at it." Anna commented. "I wish I could think of it that way as well, but I'm afraid I exclusively like dic-"

"_Anna!_" Elsa exclaimed, her cheeks flaming. "Don't be so vulgar!"

Both the redheads laughed, making her cheeks redden even more.

"Anyway," Merida said, smiling amused. "Let's make those waffles, shall we?"

Elsa looked helplessly at her, still blushing furiously, but sighed and smiled lightly. "Sure." she murmured.

* * *

Anna's room was full of posters of her favorite actors and artists, and other celebrities. Her walls were pink and white, and her door was painted with a beautiful flower pattern. She had a red canopied, and her sheets were absolutely not made. Apart from that, her room was basically clean, with an exception for a few books lying around. You wouldn't take Elsa's whimsical little sister for a clean freak, which she wasn't either, but she definitely didn't like mess.

"Oh, cool bed." Merida commented. "I had one like that before too, only smaller. It's a long time ago though."

"This is actually kinda old too." Anna said. "Got it when I was little sometime. I've had it for as long as I can remember."

Elsa smiled at that, a little too sadly maybe. She had gotten that bed before the accident.

"So, Elsa." Merida said, kicking her out of the sad thoughts that was slowly forming in her head. "Are you gonna show me your room?"

Elsa blinked, her mouth falling slightly open. "I…" she started weakly. "I haven't cleaned up."

"I don't really care about that." Merida said, and giggled. "You should see _my_ room."

"Oh, well …" She started fidgeting with her hands. "I don't know, it's …" She looked up at Anna, who were looking back at her just as expectantly. She hadn't seen Elsa room in forever either.

Elsa took a deep breath. "Sure …" she breathed, trying not to sound like she was close to having an anxiety attack.

The three girls walked out of Anna's room and started climbing the stairs to the third floor, which was just Elsa's room, a bathroom, and a small cupboard that they didn't really use for anything. When they were standing outside of Elsa's room, Elsa had to force her slowly building anxiety away. She was 99 percent sure there were ice stains or something else in that style somewhere in the room. Merida and Anna were going to start asking questions. What should she say? She could just play along, being just as confused as they were. But Merida had said she was a bad liar.

She closed her eyes, and opened the door.

The seconds of silence that passed felt like minutes.

"There isn't even any mess here." Merida said, sounding almost disappointed.

Elsa opened her eyes. A little too loud sigh escaped her, before she shut her mouth.

"Except for over there, by the window." Anna pointed out, and Elsa gave her a look.

"It's just books, though." Merida said. "Please don't tell me all those books are school books." She looked at Elsa. Elsa shrugged helplessly.

The Scot sighed heavily. "You really _are _a nerd." she said, but waved her hands apologetically at Elsa's hurt expression. "In the best of ways, of course!"

The blonde smiled tightly, but she wasn't too happy with that comment.

The phone starting ringing downstairs. "I'll get it!" Anna said quickly, and waltzed out of the room.

Merida walked over to the window, gasping a little bit. "What a view!" she said amazed. "You can see the whole town!"

Elsa followed her, stopping awkwardly beside her. "Yes," she said, the wheels turning in her head while she searched for something to say. Socialization was much easier when Anna did all the, well, socialization. "It sort of … calms me down, you know? It's a convenient place to study and be alone, and to collect my thoughts."

"Why were you so afraid of showing me your room?" Merida asked. She sounded just a little bit curious, but Elsa was sure that she was actually way more confused of this than she wanted to admit. Which was, of course, understandable. God, Elsa had to seem like such a weirdo. "It's very pretty."

"Thank you," Elsa said. She definitely didn't know how to explain it though. "I …" Her voice sounded hoarse. Why did she have to be so anxious all the time? She didn't even have much to be anxious about right now, but her heart had been in her throat ever since Merida had stepped through their door. Slowly, she lifted her hand to the window, carefully touching the glass carefully. She could only shrug. "I don't know."

Merida looked at her. "You seem to not know a lot," she said quietly, as if she was afraid of hurting the other girl.

Elsa just smiled weakly. "I guess I do," she replied. She adverted her eyes as she took a deep breath. "Having to walk out into this … society and high school life after being for myself for many, many years has been …" She balled her hand into a fist as she struggled to find the words. Her heart pounded. "Well, it's not as bad as I have often feared it would be, but it's still been quite a shock. I guess over the years I have become somewhat nervous of social interactions, and even opening up about this makes my gut complain in disapproval, and I don't think that that will change any time soon. So even if my room didn't have any-" Her voice hoarsened, and she cleared her throat. "I apologize. So even if my room didn't have any … any faults, my mind might have overreacted and-"

A hand was on her shoulder. She looked over to the other girl.

"It's fine, Elsa." she said. Her face, though smiling, was serious. "I understand."

The blonde stared at her for a couple of seconds, before she smiled back. "Thank you, Merida." she breathed, and let her hand fall from the glass.

Merida smiled at her for a few more short moments, before something else caught her attention. "Is that-" She frowned and stared out the window. Elsa followed her gaze before she realized the Scot wasn't looking _out_ the window; she was looking _at_ it. This time, Elsa was sure her heart would finally leap out of her throat. "Is that _frost?_"

The blonde stood still like a statue, just looking at that small pattern of ice that had formed on the window. She had done that. She had done it while opening up to Merida, she just _knew _it, and she hadn't even noticed! "It can't be," she almost whispered, silent fear sneaking into her voice. She hoped Merida didn't notice.

"I know, right? It's not that cold outside! Or is it?" the redhead speculated. "Maybe the temperature dropped while we were inside. Let's open the window!"

The Scot reached over to open the lock, but as soon as her hands touched the glass, she snapped her hand back, a small, surprised yelp escaping her. "That's _cold!_ What the fuck?" she swore, and gave Elsa a look that was so mystified, Elsa would have laughed if she wasn't completely frozen. No pun intended.

Merida gave her a weird look. "Aren't you gonna touch it? It's literally freezing!" She looked at the window again. "This doesn't make any sen-"

"Merida!" Anna called, and pushed the door open. "Mom just said that it's a storm coming on so you better get home before that!"

"Oh, that's right." Elsa said, a little too fatly. "I forgot about that. You should get home before it starts raining."

Merida just looked at her. Her eyes uttered nothing but confusion.

"Well, if you want to, you can wait until mom gets home, then maybe she can dri-"

"No, it's fine." the Scot interrupted. She turned to Anna and smiled. "I don't live that far away, and it's good for the health to walk. Either way, it would probably be awkward to ask for something like that." She laughed lightly.

"Aha, yeah, I guess." Anna agreed, and laughed as well.

Elsa smiled tightly, yet she was astonished that Merida had just left the topic like that.

"Well, then I'll see you guys tomorrow." Merida said, and started walking out of the room. The sisters followed to see her out the door.

"And by the way, Elsa," she added, and looked at her. "I know we don't know each other that well, but don't hesitate to ask me for help if you ever need anything."

Elsa blinked two times before she managed to collect the words for an answer. "A- Alright. I'll …" She chuckled airily, scratching her cheek awkwardly. "I'll remember that."

Merida nodded, grinned, before heading down the stairs.

When they made it to the front door, Elsa let Anna and Merida talk, mainly because she was still relatively paralyzed by the panic that had just hit her, but also because Anna was simply better at socializing than she was. They said their goodbyes, and soon later, the bubbly redhead was out the door.

Just as soon, Anna turned to Elsa. "What is up with you?" she asked worriedly.

Elsa felt bad for being surprised. She had thought Anna would be so much of an airhead that she wouldn't notice.

"Nothing, Anna." she said half-heartedly. "I just got a little nervous."

"What happened?"

"As I said, nothing did."

"But something had to trigger it! And what was that Merida said about?"

"It's not anything important. I'm fine."

"You look like a statue!"

"Anna!" Elsa snapped. "I said: I am _fine. _Don't worry about me."

The blonde instantly felt bad for raising her voice upon seeing her sister's hurt expression.

"W- Well … I do." she stuttered weakly.

"Anna," Elsa said, lifting her hand a little bit, but letting it fall again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get angry. You can worry about me all you want, but I have everything under control. I won't … I won't hide again, at least not yet, if that's what you're afraid of."

"For how long, though?"

Those words struck a little too painfully. It was as if Anna, her ever so optimistic little sister, had begun doubting her, even if that wasn't the intended meaning. "I don't know," she whispered honestly. "We'll just have to see."

"Then please hold on as long as you can manage." Anna begged. "Please."

Elsa took a shuddering breath. "I'll try," she said, feeling a lump form in her throat. "I'm sorry. I need to be alone for a while."

She didn't wait for Anna to answer, neither did she meet her eyes, before she was off, heading up the stairs. She locked the door in her room and headed right for the window. Sitting down on the windowsill, she let her head lean onto the glass. Merida would still probably be wondering about that, especially after going outside and feeling the air. Why couldn't it just be winter? Everything was just easier then. Elsa pressed her lips together, willing away the tears that both came from her former panic and her little argument with her sister. She was so weak, crying over such small things.

She just wanted to stay here until winter came. Until she could be the closest to herself that she would ever be. Until _he _came back.

She felt stupid for missing someone who might as well could just be a figment of her of own lonely mind, but at this point she didn't really care.

She definitely wished _he _would come back, as soon as possible.


	3. Chapter 3 - Some Stuff Happens

After the gates slammed shut behind her, Merida had to take a few moments before she could continue walking home. Leaning on the gate, she put a hand to her forehead and groaned quietly. She didn't quite know what to make of this visit. It sure had been interesting, but not something she had expected. Both Anna and Elsa were great people, she already knew that, despite just knowing them for a couple of days, yet there seemed to be kind of a … barrier between them. She hadn't noticed it at first, but the sisters acted way to formal towards each other to have a normal sister relationship. The Scot didn't know what had caused that, and of course it was none of her business, but it didn't stop her from being curious.

She started walking up the street.

The sister's relationship wasn't the only thing weird about this whole thing either. Anna was pretty normal, all in all, despite being adorably clumsy and the fact that she is the mayor's daughter. But Elsa … Elsa was something Merida couldn't quite put her finger on. Elsa, with her snow white hair, her icy blue eyes, her careful demeanor … Elsa, who seemed to have stayed home for most of her life, without much company, judging by her nervousness when it came to people. Elsa, always wearing those gloves, yet she never gave a reason _why. _She was like Rapunzel, just even more mysterious.

She took a turn for the forest. It was quicker that way.

What had even happened back in there? Feeling the air, it wasn't cold at all. It didn't make any sense, and it made Merida both irritated and excited. She wouldn't deny she had always been a dreamer, and though most things that seemed impossible more than often ended up having a scientific explanation, she had always liked thinking there might be something more. Not that she had any hopes that it would actually be something you could call "magic". But the frost on the window … She didn't know if she should work herself up about that. It was pretty small after all. But, like, it was still pretty warm outside! And Elsa's room was definitely not cold, at least not enough to form frost, and if she wasn't completely wrong, that frost had been on the inside of the window. So what was it? Why had Elsa been in such a hurry to talk about something else? Why had the frost appeared _exactly where _Elsa's hand had been just _seconds_ before?

Why had Elsa locked herself away all those years?

Shaking her head, she walked out on the road again and looked up to see the long driveway leading up to her house a little up the street. Her mum was probably making dinner by this time, while her father was probably telling the boys one of his stories, that were, though doubtable, true.

Was Elsa some kind of … witch? Merida almost laughed at herself. At least it would have been interesting if she was, but sadly, she doubted that was it. But maybe it was something in that manner? No, it couldn't be, right? Supernatural things is usually just natural things that hasn't been explained yet. Although Merida couldn't think of an explanation herself, there probably was one. Probably. Maybe? Yeah. Besides, when she had told her friends she had seen Wisps, _and she totally had_, they made fun of her for weeks after.

She started walking up the driveway.

She should stop letting her mind fly like that. She was sixteen, almost seventeen. Sadly, she had to grow up. Elsa had social anxiety, and that was probably why she had kept to herself. Maybe she had experienced something traumatizing that made her like that? Merida frowned. What could've been so traumatizing to make her like that anyway? If she ended up getting to know the girl, maybe she would find out someday.

She shook her head. That was no way to think of it. She wanted to be friends with Elsa, and Anna for that matter, and it wasn't because she wanted to solve this "mystery". Sure, she was curious. But that wasn't the main reason for why she wanted to get close to her. Elsa was, though reserved, a lovely and fun girl to be with, or so it seemed until now. And on top of that, she was extremely good looking. No point in denying that. Like an ice queen brought right out of a fairytale.

She opened the door and walked inside.

Well. She might as well leave the matter, since she wouldn't get any answers anytime soon either way.

"Merida?" her mother, Elinor, called.

"Yeah," Merida answered. "I was visiting a friend." She took off her jacket and shoes and walked towards the dining room.

"You could tell me when you're going to be gone after school, you know?" asked Elinor, and her voice bore a slight tint of sarcasm.

Merida grunted in response. "Mum, I am sixteen years old," she complained. "I don't need to tell you everything!"

Her mother started saying something back, but after years of practice, the redhead had learned that art of completely blocking someone out. In the dining room, her father, Fergus, and her three little brothers, Harris, Hubert and Hamish, was already sitting around the table, ready for dinner. As always, and as predicted, Fergus was in the middle of a dramatic telling, waving his arms excitedly. The boys were listening, well, at least they seemed to be, but knowing them, they were probably planning some sort of trick. God, they did so much shit, but they never got scolded, while her mother supervised her for what felt like 24/7. It was a pain.

Merida sat down without interrupting her father, though he interrupted himself to greet her before he continued talking.

About ten minutes later, Elinor came out to the dining room with a big casserole. She carefully put it down on the table before sitting down herself. Almost immediately, she looked at Merida.

She gasped. "How can you walk outside like that?" she exclaimed. "It's not summer anymore!"

Merida wanted to groan. Loudly. But she kept it in. "Gee, mum, it's okay. I can't handle it." she complained, glowering at her. She just _had _to point out everything, didn't she?

"Merida, it's _September. _You can act as tough as you want, but you're never gonna be a snow queen. You'll get sick." Elinor glowered right back at her. The two of them tended to do that.

"The snow queen?" Merida asked mockingly. Ironically, that was what _she _had called Elsa earlier that day. Or, well, ice queen, but whatever.

"The snow queen!" repeated Fergus, though with much more enthusiasm. "Haven't I told you that story, Merida? It's a fairy tale!"

"You might have, but I can't remember it. You tell a lot of stories, dad."

Fergus chuckled. "I assure you, if I have told you it, you would remember!" Of course, that's what he said about every story. He cleared his throat. "Once upon a time, in a country far away, a young princess was born. Her hair was as white as snow, and her blue eyes shined with the intensity of a thousand snowstorms. At that was because in her heart, she held the power of winter. In her first moments of her life, as her screams filled the castle hallways, snowflakes started descending from the ceiling. At first, her parents was proud: They had gotten a little daughter who would make it snow whenever she wanted!

As the years went, they king and the queen got a second child. She was just like any other child, without any supernatural powers or abilities. The two sisters loved to play together, using the older sister's powers. But one morning, something went wrong. As the sisters were playing, the younger sister was accidentally harmed by the older sister's powers. The King and the Queen, and of course the older sister, were terrified. But they found help in the trolls that lived in the mountains. The trolls saved the younger sister, but they also said the older sister's powers would grow greater and more dangerous. The King decided that the older sister should hide her powers. She locked herself up in her room, and separated herself from everyone except her parents. Including her sister …"

The rest of the story passed in a blur as Merida ate her food. The sisters got separated, they grew up, their parents died, the older sister became queen, her powers got busted, she turned evil and cursed her kingdom to be frozen for eternity, a handsome prince from the southern isles came to their rescue, killed the snow queen and married the younger sister. They lived happily ever after. Just as gruesome as any other fairytale, Merida thought. It also bothered her that it _always _had to be a man saving the day, and that the princess always ended up marrying. Merida was damn sure that if _she _had been a princess, she would not want to marry anyone at the age of sixteen.

Later that day, around six, the redhead was out in the garden firing arrows at a target that was actually very far away, even for Merida, when her phone rang. The sudden music made her jump, making her completely miss the target. The arrow flew way past it. With a groan, she picked up the phone.

"What?" she barked, annoyed.

"Wow, hey there, grumpy." It was Hiccup's voice. "What's going on?"

"You made me lose an arrow. It will take me ages to find it."

"Yeah, sure." Hiccup said sarcastically. It wouldn't take her that long. Merida was just lazy. "Uh, I was wondering if you wanted to do something."

Merida could already guess why. "Is your dad being an ass again?"

Hiccup sighed at the other end. "Yeah. Told him about the prom. Of course he flipped. Ah, well, I'm used to it."

Merida snorted. "Sounds like him." she commented. "Well, we can take a ride with Angus, if you want? Explore the forest, maybe. I'm supposed to clean my room, so I don't want to be seen my mum."

"Sure. I'll be over there in ten minutes." Hiccup said. They said goodbye and hung up.

* * *

"He just won't let the topic go, you know?" Hiccup complained, sitting behind Merida on Angus. They were aimlessly walking through the trees, but hopefully they would find some place to hang out, with enough space to set up a target and shoot some arrows. Merida had been teaching Hiccup to shoot for quite a while now, and he was starting to get pretty good, if she might say so herself. At first he had been terrible, but Merida could see his potential. And she was right.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal …" Merida murmured. "Some guys like guys, and that's oka-"

Hiccup hit her back. She laughed merrily.

"You're not funny, Merida," Hiccup said, although she could hear that he was smiling.

The two of them were always in some kind of a quarrel, but it was next to never any anger or seriousness involved. It had been like that ever since their fathers had met, got drunk together, and ended up in a bar fight, though they had become friends right away after. Reeling and staggering had they gone home to Hiccup's. Merida had decided she should follow him back home, because Elinor was exhausted after a week of hard work, and that's where she met Hiccup. He had been just a wimp back then, and one of her clearest memories was when the two fathers had started talking about her and Hiccup.

"Your daughter is such a strong little lady," Hiccup's dad, Stoick was his name, had said. "I can she what she got from you!"

"Oh, believe me, she got that strong will from her mother, not me!" Fergus had bellowed, before laughing loudly. Then he had awkwardly coughed as he looked over to Hiccup. "And your son, he is – Well … He is … I'm sure he's good for something-"

Merida knew if he had been sober, he wouldn't have been so rude, but still she had had no tolerance for that kind of behavior. Of course, Elinor was her mother. She had given him a long and wordy rant, putting some sense right back into him there and then. All three of them had been surprised. And after that, Merida and Hiccup started talking, and soon became friends, despite Hiccup's embarrassment.

"Wait, turn here. Have we gone here before?" Hiccup suddenly said, bringing the redhead out of her thoughts. She turned her head towards where Hiccup was pointing, and tilted her head a bit.

"I … don't think so. Let's go." She grinned, and turned Angus towards the new, nearly hidden path. She was fairly sure she hadn't seen it before, which was unlikely, since she had spent a lot of time in this forest. But here it was, and here they were.

They followed the path while Hiccup kept complaining about his father, and Merida gave him some agreeing answers in between his sentences, until they reached a place fit for archery. There, Merida tied Angus to one of the trees, and balanced one of the bottles they had brought on a branch: Ten points if they hit the bottle, twenty of you hit the cork.

"Have you been practicing alone, Hiccup?" Merida asked absently, as she prepared the bow.

"Not really." Hiccup answered, in which the red head gave him a sour look.

"Hic, archery is like – like playing the piano, probably," she said, having never practiced piano playing her whole life. "You gotta practice often, or else you'll never get better!"

Hiccup walked over to her and took the bow from her. Merida placed her hands on her hips and gave him a challenging look, and Hiccup scoffed. "But I _have _gotten better." he protested.

"Well, if you'd practice more, maybe you'd be … _almost _half as good as me by now." Merida grinned broadly, and Hiccup hit her in the shoulder playfully before getting to business. He strained the bow and shot, but the arrow flew lamely past the bottle, into the woods.

"Not even close!" Merida laughed, and sat down on a stump, crossing her arms. "You gotta go find that arrow, Hic. I've lost like three in the past week."

Hiccup murmured something as he went looking for it, but she couldn't quite catch what it was. Probably something along the lines of "well that's _your _fault" or just "yeah, yeah". Either way Merida gave a small chuckle.

The second Hiccup turned his back to her, her thoughts automatically went back to Elsa and her weird behavior. Her biggest question was why the girl hadn't gone to public school until now. Anna had, so why hadn't she? What had made her so anxious all the time? And why was she so secretive? Merida couldn't remember being more intrigued about a person before. There was of course the first few times she had been with Rapunzel, but her – her weirdness was more obvious than Elsa's weirdness. Elsa was just one big mystery, and Merida wanted to know nothing less than everything about her. And besides her behavior, the girl was unusually beautiful. Somehow she managed to be cute and elegant at the same time; just with a slight movement with her eyebrows made her go from an innocent little girl, to a fierce ice queen in a matter of seconds. Merida knew that she would get attention from the boys at school, and a part of her was proud that she had met her first, that she was already friends with her. Because they were friends, right? She hoped so.

"Hey, Merida, are you okay?"

Merida moved her eyes over to Hiccup, who had come back with the arrow. "Yeah, why?"

He shrugged. "You seem distant." he simply said.

She scoffed. "Yeah, I guess. I was at Elsa's place today." She stood up, and took the arrow from him as Hiccup made a questioning expression. She started walking around, playing with the arrow as she talked. "And she … Well, she and Anna is sort of tense. I don't know why, but they are. And Elsa is – Elsa is like, really mysterious." She paused, and a grin made its way to her face. "It's so exciting."

"Exciting in a good or a bad way?" Hiccup asked.

"I don't know yet!" the redhead answered, picking up the bow. "And that's what makes her interesting! I _have _to know her." She strained the bow, and let go just a second later. The arrow shot through the air, digging into a tree, and took the cork with it. She started walking towards it. "It's like Rapunzel, but imagine it like this: Rapunzel is like a treasure chest – We know it's something in the chest, but we don't have the key. While Elsa is the whole adventure! We have to go out looking for the chest, without knowing if there even is one, but I know it is! She's a fairytale, and I intend to finish it." She examined where the arrow had hit, and saw that it had taken the cork with it. It was smashed between the tree and the arrow.

"Aren't you a romantic," Hiccup said sarcastically. "Bull's eye?"

"Hell yeah," Merida said, and took the arrow back. "Will you get another bottle?"

"Sure."

She walked back into the stub after handing the bow to Hiccup again. He had to fetch arrows another time before he hit anything, and when he did, it was just the tree, not the bottle, and definitely not the cork. Merida laughed at him, though he wasn't too bad. He was better than Rapunzel, but not better than Astrid, who seemed like a natural. Of course, not as good as Merida. Yes, the redhead was sort of a narcissist when it came to archery.

The sun had started setting when Merida's phone rang. She cursed when she saw that it was Elinor, though she didn't dare to not pick up.

"Hey, mum," she started slowly. She had forgotten something, surely.

"Weren't you supposed to clean the dishes, _and _your room today?" Elinor barked.

Merida mouthed another swear. "Yes, sorry, I forgot," she said, and sighed. "But I'm out with Hiccup right now! Can't I do it tomorrow?"

"That's what you said yesterday too. Come home right now, or you can forget to go out in the weekend."

"But we've-"

"No buts, Merida. You come home right now."

Merida groaned. "_Fine!_" she hissed, and hang up. She turned to Hiccup with a deep frown on her face, and Hiccup sighed. They had gone through this many times before. "I have to go. But if you want to continue for a bit, just come back to my house with Angus and my stuff, alright?"

"Sure, but you can take Angus with you," Hiccup said, sending the horse a skeptical look.

Merida scoffed. "It's not that hard. You've done it before." she argued. "And will you able to carry everything back?"

"Yes, Merida, I am not that weak," he said, and rolled his eyes.

"Not anymore, no," Merida grinned, as untied Angus and climbed up on him. "It's a lot to get used to. Oh well, then I'll take Angus. Talk to you tomorrow!"

"Yeah, bye," he murmured, and gave a half-hearted wave.

* * *

It was dark when Hiccup decided it was time to go home. He agreed with Merida when she said archery was a great way to get out some frustration, while still giving you time to think. Also, he was happy with the progress he had made today. Merida was also right when she said he needed to practice more, but he wasn't going to admit that unless he had to. Merida was actually right about a lot of things, but he didn't want to give her that satisfaction.

He opened his bag and started through the broken bottles in it, and just as he was about to take the string of the bow, a weird sound, as if something big had flown over him, made him look up, alarmed. Above him was thousands of stars, shimmering on a pitch-black background. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Had he imagined it? It was dark, and he was standing alone in a deep forest. It was just natural that his mind played tricks on him. But that sound had seemed so-

What was that? Was it anything at all? Just for a moment, it had seemed like the stars were fading away, spot by spot, but when he looked again, everything was back to normal. What was going on? His heartbeat sped up, and his hold on the bow tightened. Shaking, he put an arrow on the bow. Better to prepared than not, no? His eyes darted to the shadows around him, though the feeling in his gut told him he should look up. So he did, and-

A small shriek escaped him. Something big and dark and probably very, very dangerous was coming right at him. He didn't have time to think. He aimed at the thing and shot, before stumbling backwards. Something that could almost sound like a scream, only not at all, filled the air, and he was sure he saw something fall through the air. A distant thump confirmed his suspicions.

The boy remained where he sat, breathing heavily. His heart pumped so fast he was afraid it would go right through his chest. His eyes were as round as golf balls, and his mouth suddenly felt like he hadn't drunk anything for days. His looked around for more dark nightmare monsters, but he couldn't see nor hear anything. _What was that? _He let out a small whimper, and shook his head. Was he dreaming? He had to. It certainly felt like it, right now.

His legs felt like jelly when he stood up, and he had to lean against a tree before he managed to walk normally. He grabbed the bow again, along with the arrows, and looked around. What should he do now? Go home and pretend like nothing happened? That would be the safest choice, but … He bit his lip. What if he had done something horrible. Oh god, what if he had killed someone? He couldn't exactly see how the thing he had seen, or thought he had seen, could have been a human, but maybe he had eaten something funny, and he was hallucinating? It was kind of farfetched, but what could it have been anyway? Everything about this damn situation was farfetched.

He swallowed. Okay, he had to go into the woods and find out what had happened. Maybe it was … like a really big bird, and maybe it was an endangered species that was illegal to shoot. Then he would definitely be in trouble, and since it was Merida's arrow, maybe she would get in trouble too, because of him? He had to check it out.

With his hand tightly wrapped around the bow, and the arrows fastened around his waist, he started making his way towards where he thought the thing had landed. Though he was in an unknown part of the forest, he thought he could navigate pretty well, so he wouldn't get lost. Hopefully. He should have brought a flashlight, but he did have his cellphone. It didn't do much good, but at least he would know if he was about to fall into a pond or … a magic endless void or something.

After walking for what felt like forever, and after stepping into a small pond of mud, completely ruining his shoes, he heard something again. The sound wasn't like anything he had heard before, but it didn't sound good. Like something getting strangled, or preparing for attack? He really couldn't tell. His mind was yelling at him to run away, and he actually really wanted to do exactly that, but at the same time, this wasn't something that happened everyday. It was exciting. But also so incredibly terrifying.

Another step forward and Hiccup stumbled in a root, before tumbling down a small hill, letting out a surprised yelp. He almost crashed into a big rock before his stopped himself and groaned loudly. "This day could be better …" he murmured as he stood up. Then, just a second after, he heard the terrifying growling-like sound, but this time it was much, much closer.

Hiccup's breath got caught in his throat. Slowly took one step backwards, before he stopped again. He had come all this way for a reason, hadn't he? Even more carefully he starting making his way around the rock, and what he saw was a narrow, hidden path down to a sort of crater in a clearing. And what he saw there was- What was it? The dark around him made it hard to see, but there was something. Something dark, making sounds as it flopped around in the crater. Was it unable to get up? It almost seemed a little desperate. Hiccup didn't dare to move. He didn't dare to breathe. This wasn't some kind of bird, was it? It was so big, and dark, and alien. But what was it then?

Shaking, he brought his cell phone up to light on the thing, but it was too weak to actually see anything. So instead he started walking down the path, between rocks and bushes. His breath came out in short, silent gasps. Every muscle in his body was tense. He just had to be careful: Maybe if he didn't make a sound, the thing wouldn't hear or see him. Unless it could see in the darkness. That would have been inconvenie-

He let out another surprised shout, this time because where the ground beneath him suddenly disappeared. He landed painfully on his feet, before he fell on his knees, giving a small whimpering noise as the pain shot through him. He looked around himself, scared out of his mind, and the first thing he saw was two big, green piercing eyes coming towards him at an amazing speed.

* * *

Earlier that day, Rapunzel and Astrid was sitting lazily on one of the harbor's pier, doing not much in particular. The sun was setting and the air was getting cold. Astrid had her arm around Rapunzel's shoulder, and Rapunzel was leaning her head against Astrid's chest.

"I'm tired," Astrid mumbled.

"Why is that?" Rapunzel asked.

"I don't know," She yawned before continuing. "I'm just always tired, for some reason."

Silenced settled between them. It was usually like this when they were alone: They had a small conversation, usually not a very important one, before they went quiet, just enjoying each other's company. It wasn't an awkward type of silence. It was warm and comfortable. And since both Astrid and Rapunzel had a tendency to work themselves up if the situation was just moderately exciting or stressful, it was quite relaxing to just sit around.

"Do you think they found out yet?" Rapunzel murmured, shifting slightly. Astrid let her fingers brush lightly through her hair.

"Found out about what?" she asked.

"About us."

Astrid licked her lips. "I don't know," she said. "We've been quite obvious lately. They'll probably realize soon, so we might as well tell them."

"I don't know …" Rapunzel sat up, to Astrid's dismay. "What if they won't approve?"

Astrid scoffed. "Don't be silly," she said, nudging the other softly. "They're our friends. Well- I don't know about Anna and Elsa, of course. Especially Elsa. I'm not too sure about her, to be honest."

Rapunzel gave her a sour look. "Astrid." she scolded. "Elsa just started school. She's probably just nervous."

"Why, is it weird that I sort of see a story repeating itself?" She smirked at the other girl.

Rapunzel blushed. "Don't be so loud about it," she said, bringing her hand absently to her hair. "At least I started school when I was twelve. And what do you even mean? What's so special about Elsa?"

Astrid gave a small chuckle. "When you say it like that you sound awfully jealous," she commented, before Rapunzel smacked her shoulder, and she laughed again. "Sorry, sorry … Uh, well. Not so much, really, It's just weird that she started going to school this late. And she's so quiet and nervous all the time."

"Like I said, she _just _started school. It's normal being nervous. I was nervous." Rapunzel argued.

"Yeah, but Punz, you aren't the most normal person you can find around here. Are you saying Elsa has magic hair as well?"

This time she pushed her. "I said don't be so loud about it!"

"Relax, there's nobody here!" Astrid replied, and laughed as she fell backwards. She didn't bother to get up, and after lying there for a few seconds, Rapunzel joined her on the ground.

"I guess …" Rapunzel started, before hesitating. "I mean, if there _is _something with her, which there's probably not because what is the chance that _two _girls with magical powers live in the same small town like this, but if she has something to hide, we will not bother her about it. Ok? I know how that is, so no, don't do that."

"But Rapunzel-"

"But Astrid!" Rapunzel interrupted. Her tone was strict. It was amazing how she could so easily go from sounding sweet and innocent to sounding like a mother scolding her children. "You're lucky that you know about me, even. And I _had_ to tell you, but I didn't _want_ to, because I thought you would think I was like a monster or something, but at the same time, I trust you, so it was sort of fine – But Elsa doesn't seem to trust anyone. So we let her come to us, and if she doesn't, that's that." She gave Astrid a determined look. "That is that," she repeated harshly.

Astrid groaned. "_Fine." _she mumbled.

"But," Rapunzel said. "We're not going to jump to any conclusions. She's probably just a nervous girl."

"Think what you want." Astrid said. "How is it that _I _am the dreamer and _you _are the realist now? Usually it's the other way around."

Rapunzel giggled childishly at that, before she leaned over the other girl and kissed her softly on her lips. "I'm glad you found out." she murmured. "I know it doesn't always seem like it, but I am."

Astrid smiled up at her. "I know," she said, before raising her eyebrows. "Though I rarely see you use your powers, so it's not really that big of a deal."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "I'll use it when I have to," she countered.

"Well, uh," Astrid said, as she carefully moved Rapunzel away and pulled up her pants on her right leg. "The other days when I was running to catch the bus, I fell and hurt my knee, so it's sort of-"

Rapunzel made a small noise in the back of her throat. On Astrid's knee was a relatively big wound. It had already started healing, so it probably weren't as bad as it had been when it was fresh. "You want me to heal that puny scratch?" Rapunzel mocked.

"Punz, you wound me." Astrid laughed, and slapped her shoulder. "Please?"

Rapunzel hesitated. "I don't … Mother would kill me." she said quietly.

"She won't find out," Astrid said, and moved her hands to Rapunzel's cheeks. She tipped her head upwards, so that their eyes met. Astrid had never told, but she hated Rapunzel's mother. She saw right through her games and manipulations, but she didn't dare to tell her girlfriend about it, in case she got mad or hurt. Not right now, at least. She saw how dark her eyes got every time Gothel came up in a conversation, and she hated that, so much. "She won't. I promise."

Rapunzel looked at her for a few seconds, before she nodded. "Okay," she said. "I guess. But what if somebody else sees?"

"Uh-" Astrid took her jacket, and through it over the other's head, and then Rapunzel's jacket over herself, so that they made a sort of blanket fort around themselves. They had to sit very close, but that wasn't unusual anyway. Rapunzel's vanilla perfume filled her nostrils. She reached behind her and pulled her heavy braid over her shoulder. Even when the tip of it touched the ground in front of them, it curved all the way down to the ground behind them too. Rapunzel took the tip and placed it over Astrid's knee. "Okay …" she murmured, and closed her eyes. Her brows furrowed in an adorably concentrated manner. She breathed softly in before she started singing:

"_Heal what has been hurt,_

_Change the fate's design,_

_Save what has been lost,_

_Bring back what once was mine,_

_What once was mine._"

Her voice was soft, and warm. She never missed a note, nor a beat. It was obvious that she had sung that song many times before, yet Astrid wanted to hear that melody over and over again. Well, if it was Rapunzel singing, it could be any song, and it would still be perfect. A warm feeling spread from her knee and throughout her body, and she leaned her forehead against Rapunzel's. When she was done, she looked down on her knee. The wound was completely gone. She knew it would happen, but it was still wondrous to see.

"I love you," Astrid mumbled, and kissed the other girl playfully on her nose.

Rapunzel giggled again. "I love you mo-" She stopped herself. "I mean, too. I love you too."

"I know." Astrid said, and grinned. They let the jackets fall to the ground again. "Should we get going? It's getting a little cold."

"Yeah, sure." Rapunzel said, and wobbled to her feet. She was painfully thin, Astrid thought. Though she thought that was just how her body was.

Astrid got to her feet as well, and put on her jacket. Rapunzel did the same, before they started walking back to land, hand in hand.

* * *

A lone figure was looking up at the moon. He wasn't doing anything in particular, though watching the moon had become … some kind of a hobby, over the years. He had gotten very good at guessing how long it was until it was full, and at the same time which month it was. He couldn't _exactly _tell the date, but at least it was something. And either way, dates didn't matter to him so much. He knew when and where he had to be places.

Stretching his arms towards the sky, he yawned, before letting them fall to his sides. It was already white and ice cold here, so he could move on to the next place that needed a little winter air. But he kind of felt like doing something else. He had a friend whom he knew was doing something challenging, and she could probably need some support. Not that he didn't believe in her, in fact he was the one who convinced her to do the thing, to go out and see the world.

It was only almost October, but maybe winter could come a little earlier to Northlyn.

* * *

**AN**

**So, for you non-northerners: I'm basing this fictional country's climate off the climate I'm used to, and that is Norway's climate. And it gets dark very quickly. Since it's almost October here, I guess it would become dark around ? six seven ? something like that. My point is, Hiccup wasn't out for forever. Also, no Elsida this chapter, BUT I have some ideas for the next chapter hohoho. Also, Rapunstrid! I like them a lot.**


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